Angus Deayton and a host of guests return this Friday at 9pm with a second series of Would I Lie To You? the comedy panel gameshow that constantly evokes memories of the Charles and Eddie hit from 1991.

Accompanied by team captains David Mitchell and Lee Mack, this week sees Rob Brydon and Robert Webb, Gabby Logan and Krishnan Guru-Murthy join in the fun. If you haven’t seen it before, it goes something like this:

Two teams compete head-to-head with each player revealing incredible facts and (at times woefully) embarrassing personal tales for the consideration of the opposing team. Some of these yarns are true; some are not, and it’s down to the panellists to separate the facts from the fabrications. Think Call My Bluff without the archaisms and with laughs.

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The Guardian has reported on the recommissioning of Peep Show - and even suggested it could go on and on. Blogger Julia Raeside judges:

To sustain a sitcom in which the protagonists aren’t very likable is a feat in itself. Why do we love Mark and Jeremy so much when they include on their collective CV dog-eating, soiling themselves in church, marrying out of embarrassment and pooing in a swimming pool? They are horrible and yet somehow enormously loveable. Perhaps it’s because we can hear what they’re thinking and, no matter how dark their internal mutterings become, there is a corner in every viewer’s mind that knows what they are going to say just before they say it.

And she’s precisely correct, of course. There’s little worse than hearing how bad things are in the British sitcom-scape, so its grand to see a show that has approached the genre in a new way and given us these characters that while physically normal are in every way as ghastly as those we met in Royston Vasey, or on The Catherine Tate Show.

The internal monologues of Mark and Jeremy, while key to the nature of the series, are the setup to virtually all major comedy moments in the series. It’s a unique feat to bring a clever comic device in and then use it in such a manner several times an episode; it’s a gimmick, but one that behaves like every other element of the writing. It’s never out of place, and that’s why Peep Show is a success and could easily run and run.

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It of course wonderful to see Mitchell and Webb back on our screens in the BAFTA award-winning Peep Show, the unique Channel 4 sitcom in which we hear the innermost thoughts of the protagonists, and see things as they see them.

Written by Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain Peep Show is hilariously consistent, and really is Channel 4’s comedy jewel.

However what I didn’t know is that one of the men behind the idea is Andrew O’Connor - remember him? Described as an “actor, comedian, magician, television presenter” O’Connor is behind a great deal of Channel 4’s comedy output. A long way from No 73 with Sandi Toksvig. He also directed Mitchell & Webb’s 2007 movie The Magicians, as well Ricky Gervais’ brown nose exercises with Christopher Guest and others.

There’s definitely a case for Mitchell & Webb to be on the TV 52 weeks of the year, as long as the quality of their own series and that of Peep Show continues. Last nights second of the new run was excellent, and easily the second funniest show of the day (after, naturally, Have I Got News For You, hosted this week by Bill Bailey)!

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In the spirit of things – the superb 1970s bawdy hospital from That Mitchell and Webb Look!

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Devastingly, this week sees the final installment of the second run of That Mitchell and Webb Look, which frankly has kicked the mincing behinds of virtually everything else on television at the moment (save Harry Hill and Al Murray).  I couldn’t even begin to list the highlights here, but the recent “off air” sketch in which David Mitchell decides his name is derived from “Myth Child” and suggests he is the Son of God was particularly good, and would have rang true with a certain male demographic.

There’s a new series of Peep Show starting in May, however, so the duo won’t be off air for too long.

In the meantime, in their honour, and in anticipation of the final installment of Sir Digby Chicken-Caesar  and his sidekick Ginger, let’s have a group hum of their theme tune, Devil’s Gallop!

Altogether now: dum-de dum-de dum-de dum-dum-dum-de-dum-tum dum didller diddler dum dum dum!

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Refreshing to see That Mitchell & Webb Look making an impact with fans of quotable comedy. That’s “quotable comedy” as opposed to “catchphrase comedy” – basically its very well written and utilises cleverly composed dialogue that can be repeated on the way to lectures, in the pub, etc, without everyone chorusing “I’m a LAYDEEE!!!!”

Mitchell & Webb truly are the next link in the Monty Python > Fry & Laurie chain, employing archetypes in situations that at first seem commonplace but which are in fact quickly turned on their heads. Enter either Mitchell or Webb to dance lyrically around the sketch, entertaining the viewer with rather unsettling, absurd or bizarre resolutions.

It’s a format that works depending upon the performers, and Mitchell and Webb both have the skill and charm to make the format work. Expect to see Robert Webb hosting Palin-esque travelogues in 30 years time…

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